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News & Current Events Mar 31, 2026 at 4:09 PM

Job openings slide to 6.9 million in February, another hint of sluggish hiring in America

Posted by AudibleNod

Job openings slide to 6.9 million in February, another hint of sluggish hiring in America
ABC News
Job openings slide to 6.9 million in February, another hint of sluggish hiring in America
U.S. job openings fell slightly last month to 6.9 million, another sign of sluggishness in the American labor market
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Peach__Pixie Mar 31, 2026 +557
I don't even want to know how many of these job "openings" are actually ghost jobs.
557
s4lt3d Mar 31, 2026 +357
Just did work for a company who posts jobs to gather data and offers no job. People are willing to submit all personal information to a company for a “job” that doesn’t exist. They then use that data and there never was a job. It should be illegal.
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Public_Cartographer Mar 31, 2026 +79
Out of curiosity, what are they doing with the data? I had one place that clearly had been doing this and the initial HR call was purely to hear my existing salary.
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McCree114 Mar 31, 2026 +143
Selling it to data brokers/AI companies most likely. Ever notice that you'll suddenly be inundated with spam calls/texts/emails after going on an online job application spree?
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JerseyPumpkin Apr 1, 2026 +28
How are you supposed to fill those applications without putting in personal information
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saqib400 Apr 1, 2026 +67
You aren't. That's the point.
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Punished_Prigo Apr 1, 2026 +10
I don’t even apply to jobs anymore because of how little I trust that entire process. My last 3 jobs have all come entirely on waiting for recruiters to call me with something interesting
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Shosui Apr 1, 2026 +9
Recruiters sell your info too.
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Punished_Prigo Apr 1, 2026 +3
Yeah I mean they got it somewhere but I’m not giving them anything more than my resume until they show up with a real offer. I have a public resume that I update every few years. That’s all I ever give out. I just leave that up on a few job websites for my field. Recruiters call and I entertain them only if I can progress through the process without filling out a bunch of shit first
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Cainga Apr 1, 2026 +8
This might not be a bad time to dedicate an application only email and throw away phone number like Google voice.
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BorrowedAttention Apr 1, 2026 +2
So who can we make pay for this?
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TalpaPantheraUncia Apr 1, 2026 +3
This is why indeed is bullshit. Hell even their own sign up process requires you to provide a phone number which you MUST agree that they are allowed to sell. F*** that. I already get enough robot calls.
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Happy-Range3975 Mar 31, 2026 +12
I would argue more than half.
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Public_Cartographer Mar 31, 2026 +44
As someone who's been searching for a year, at least 50% of them. I'm senior R&D manager level in a well developed area with many global HQ's. Jobs get listed for months then closed with no one joining the company under that title. One place in particular has rolled through more openings than actual seats in their building over the past year. Then there's the listings that are so easy to fill it shouldn't be open more than a week and it's been open for over a year now.
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MatthewSWFL229 Mar 31, 2026 +80
Per Powell: "Jerome Powell finally said out loud what the revisions have been quietly showing for months. During his March 18 press conference, Powell said that “effectively there’s zero net job creation in the private sector” over roughly the past six months after adjusting for what Fed staff view as overstatement in the payroll data. He added that the economy appears to be in a “zero employment growth equilibrium,” which he tied to virtually nonexistent labor-force growth. Those comments came directly from the Fed chair, not from some critic on the sidelines, and they confirm the broader point I have made repeatedly that the headline payroll numbers are often political theater until the revisions arrive and reveal the truth." [https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/armstrongeconomics101/economics/powell-there-is-zero-net-job-creation-in-the-private-sector/](https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/armstrongeconomics101/economics/powell-there-is-zero-net-job-creation-in-the-private-sector/)
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DeltaFoxtrot144 Mar 31, 2026 +117
From recession to depression in record time, finally winning at something.
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Sneakylesbian Mar 31, 2026 +366
Lets use AI and call centers from outside the US. that will help
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DoomOne Mar 31, 2026 +130
Have you also considered replacing warehouse and factory employees with robots? That'll bring those job numbers up!
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LystAP Mar 31, 2026 +24
Why not both? Robots controlled by c**** call center workers from outside of the US. All the benefits of undocumented workers with none of the political problems.
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finder787 Mar 31, 2026 +12
Finally a solution to the Minimum Wage problem. Share holder values will surely skyrocket to the moon with these innovative solutions!
12
meme_abstinent Mar 31, 2026 +50
Got turned down by an AI for an entry level position at an AMC theater. I have 10+ years of customer service experience, the last 4 spent in 5 star hotels. But f*** me I guess. Can’t have a sudden move and need a part time 🤷🏽‍♂️
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tehlemmings Mar 31, 2026 +22
AI probably assumed you'd leave if you find another job, and that you can likely find another job. They want the real desperate for extra low pay.
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wh4tth3huh Apr 1, 2026 +9
They don't want us either for the same f****** reason.
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Seastep Mar 31, 2026 +13
When Actual Indians meets actual India.
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Sweatytubesock Mar 31, 2026 +94
Running the country like one of his many, many failed businesses. Who would have guessed?
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Even_Establishment95 Mar 31, 2026 +33
I see so many people doing gigs for cash. It’s like absolutely necessary to survive when your job doesn’t pay enough or is cutting labor hours or you can’t find a job. Finding the gigs is hard though and competitive. Even harder if you deleted social media.
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jminternelia Apr 1, 2026 +4
That’s the entire model the tech billionaires want for us. No benefits, no minimum wage. Gig workers are gladiators for the lowest pay. Iirc, Bezos postulated this as a Utopian future and Obama told him it sounded like a good start to a revolution.
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Maggpie916 Mar 31, 2026 +62
“Sluggish” hiring? As someone actively looking for work, respectfully, eat my ass.
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Public_Cartographer Mar 31, 2026 +15
Respectfully, they can eat my ass as sloppy seconds. Everyone in my area is laying off. Despite a very busy listing of"open positions", they're all under a very firm hiring freeze.
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tech240guy Mar 31, 2026 +24
Oracle just layed off 30k workers. Are we winning yet? 
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Cohens4thClient Apr 1, 2026 +12
30k so far All because a rich guy made a bad bet on AI data center development, racked up billions of debt, still has net profit but wanted to gamble with other people's money, the investors and banks are wising up, and good people will get screwed.
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AudibleNod Mar 31, 2026 +211
>A measure of hiring also deteriorated: The JOLTS report showed 4.85 million gross hires in February, fewest since April 2020. Oh man, the worst since 2020. That's as bad as **checks notes* Donald Trump. >The U.S. job market has sputtered over the past year, reflecting the lingering impact of the high interest rates and uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s economic policies and the impact of artificial intelligence. It sputtered alright. Like loose stool collecting in an adult diaper.
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JustGottaKeepTrying Apr 1, 2026 +3
Ya but the Dow was up today so is this report even important any more? /s
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Icy-Cod1405 Mar 31, 2026 +2
tbf 2020 wasn't completely his fault. 2026 on the other hand....
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DoomOne Mar 31, 2026 +159
He shut down the f****** organization who's job it was to track, study and counteract diseases *before* they get out of hand. It sure as shit is his fault.
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Sharkbait_ooohaha Apr 1, 2026 +2
Yeah believe it or not, the US was the only country that struggled during the pandemic…
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BananaCucho Apr 1, 2026 +5
The way they tell it, Biden caused COVID
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AudibleNod Mar 31, 2026 +64
He eliminated the pandemic response task force and went along with all the anti-masking, ivermectin bullshit. Over a million Americans are dead now. There's over a million people with Long COVID who haven't returned to the workforce or have difficulty with continued employment. If you look at other densely populated, heavily industrialized countries, America is the outlier. Canada, Iran, South Korea all have lower COVID death rates. He's not to blame for COVID. But he is to blame for the lack of a plan.
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Steve_didit Mar 31, 2026 -30
As much as I want to blame him for that and he is probably partly to blame, I think the selfish attitude of many Americans had more to do with it than anything.
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Sofer2113 Mar 31, 2026 +44
Had he come out and told the American people to listen to the experts, do your civic duty and wear masks in public to reduce the spread, and just generally shown a minimal level of leadership skills, that would have done quite a bit to change the attitudes of a lot of the American public.
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Steve_didit Mar 31, 2026 -17
I think that is extremely wishful thinking. Even before he really got on the anti-masking and antivax stuff people were spreading it like crazy. Many cities refused to do shutdowns and the anti-mask movement started before the president started talking about it.
-17
Sofer2113 Apr 1, 2026 +7
He started with his "don't trust the experts" nearly immediately. Cities didn't even get a chance to do shutdowns before he said "cases are going down, next week we won't have any" and " we just won't test and we won't have any cases". You'd be surprised at how much buy-in he could have gotten had he just said "ask not what your country can do for you, but instead what you can do for your country. #maskupforgrandma"
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BrickwallBill Apr 1, 2026 +6
Like someone else in these comments pointed out, had he made MAGA branded face masks they'd have been worn by pretty much every conservative voter. He could have made a f****** fortune off that alone, but he's the most incompetent "business man" of all time.
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AudibleNod Mar 31, 2026 +22
He could have worn a mask in public. He could have said "listen to this Fauci guy". He could have gone on his social media platform and asked his MAGA folks to ignore RFK Jr and any other loon. He had a cult of personality then that he could have saved. Hell, he might have even won reelection with the lives saved. But no.
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solarnuggets Mar 31, 2026 +94
How it was handled…mishandled…is almost entirely his fault 
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Icy-Cod1405 Mar 31, 2026 -27
He definitely mishandled the pandemic and caused many thousands of unnecessary deaths. Job losses because of the pandemic were a global event and probably would have been higher if we had a stricter shutdown. These are not contradictory statements even if you want them to be.
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solarnuggets Mar 31, 2026 +34
If he’d contained the spread earlier like New Zealand, we could have avoided longer lockdowns allowing businesses to open up faster. If he’d provided a clear national strategy instead of leaving it to the states there wouldn’t have been this stop and start, open and now closed cycle of uncertainty. Businesses struggled to plan leading to layoffs and permanent closures.  He could have also subsidized wages. Countries that did this had less layoffs overall.  I mean good god his messaging caused consumers to tighten their wallets and change their spending habits in ways that are still permanent to this day 6 years later.  Yes there was job loss internationally. Job loss was always going to happen. But his inability to LEAD and make decisions for the country made the outcome much worse than it needed to be.  These are contradictory statements even though you don’t want them to be 
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AwarenessRude5541 Mar 31, 2026 +20
Imagine if he just endorsed science and sold MAGA masks. He would have made a killing instead of killing Americans.
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SouthernAddress5051 Mar 31, 2026 +10
He probably would have been re-elected. The pandemic was a political gift to him if he had taken it seriously, but of course he's incapable of that. The same broken brain that couldn't handle the pandemic is the one that decided to go to war with Iran with only a concept of a plan.
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thatkmart Mar 31, 2026 +4
And when the right wing bucked masks he refused to simply make a statement of “wear the damn masks.”
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PippaTulip Apr 1, 2026
I have no numbers, but I hear and read how Americans talk about corona in the media as this big trauma, people dying en masse. That is not how most people in other western countries experienced it. Most people dying here were elderly people or people with immune diseases. We wore masks, held our distance, kids were sometimes home from school and people worked from home. There was a level of control and riskmanagement. It wasn't fun of course but also not the out of control mess it sounds the US had.
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Silly-Supermarket-63 Apr 1, 2026 +3
And where is “here” for you?
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ttUVWKWt8DbpJtw7XJ7v Mar 31, 2026 +15
Which makes 2026 look even worse. There was a global, once in a lifetime pandemic happening. And we’re at those levels again in 2026?
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Killer_Sloth Mar 31, 2026 +5
It absolutely was. If he had taken it seriously and told his brainwashed minions to just wear the damn mask and social distance for 2 weeks it wouldn't have been nearly as bad as it was. But instead he had to spread misinformation and ignore the problem until it became a catastrophe.
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Tuesday_6PM Apr 1, 2026 +1
Not to dogpile on your comment here, but it’s worth remembering: Trump’s administration seized shipments of protective gear that were heading to blue states, then redistributed them to private companies to resell at a profit
1
mrdominoe Mar 31, 2026 +52
Ah yes. Exactly how the economists predicted. Almost as if you should listen to the experts when deciding on who to vote for and not your inbred cousin with a GED and his daughter/wife.
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Aphile Mar 31, 2026 +4
Upvoted for use of my favorite word: inbred!
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Smokey19mom Mar 31, 2026 +69
AI is ruining the job market. Apply, AI reviews resume, then the abyss. Not a single human reviews resumes before an AI program does. Then the jobs that AI can replace is already replacing them or being created to replace them.
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PhiladelphiaManeto Mar 31, 2026 -17
I still don't know an AI software that can fix a sink, paint a house, drive a truck, or sell a medical device.
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Welcome2B_Here Mar 31, 2026 +30
Funny part about that is AI isn't even doing the things it's being sold to do in the first place. It's a cart before the horse situation with hyperbolic levels of expectations and lack of actual results.
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Fenix42 Mar 31, 2026 +19
>drive a truck, Self driving vehicles are already on the road. They ar trying to get approval for truck right now
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rockmasterflex Mar 31, 2026 +9
Sink fixing and house painting are complex physical actions. Truck driving is already ai powered. Sales, even medical, has been ai driven since “big data” became a concept. The tricky part is all that regulation around prescriptions… which unethical people could solve with ai and our administration is unethical… so
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PhiladelphiaManeto Mar 31, 2026 -16
Medical device sales as a job is not handled by AI. That’s a lie. Truck driving is not being performed by artificial intelligence either.
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bratbarn Mar 31, 2026 +8
Aurora Innovation is a leader in autonomous trucking, currently operating commercial, driverless Class 8 trucks in Texas. Using the "Aurora Driver" system, they provide autonomous freight services for partners like Uber Freight, FedEx, and Werner, aiming for 24/7, safer, and more efficient, long-haul logistics.
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PhiladelphiaManeto Mar 31, 2026 -9
Long-haul freight
-9
touchet29 Mar 31, 2026 -32
This isn't an AI problem that's just the scapegoat. Recent data shows that companies that are AI forward hire 4% more than non AI forward companies. Your perception of this aspect is backwards
-32
ttUVWKWt8DbpJtw7XJ7v Mar 31, 2026 +21
Can you blame them? Haven’t you seen the slew of companies laying people off, praising AI? What are people’s perceptions supposed to be?
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touchet29 Mar 31, 2026 -7
I don't blame people. But I can help inform, regardless of the down votes.
-7
ttUVWKWt8DbpJtw7XJ7v Mar 31, 2026 +10
If that’s your intention it’d be 1000% better to list a source for your 4% figure.
10
lordraiden007 Mar 31, 2026 +5
What are the relative sizes of those companies? Considering literally none of the top 500 companies are “non AI forward” it’s no surprise that they “hire 4% more”. The other “AI forward” companies are also primarily startups that always hire more… because they’re starting up. With no source that outlines methodology your claim is worthless on its face, and even if you provided it I guarantee you there are other factors not accounted for (like the recent craze of large firing everyone then hiring back the bare minimum number, or hiring all H1B replacements, or hiring overseas).
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thepianoman456 Mar 31, 2026 +10
AI is gonna reeeeeeally help here. Humans are just getting in the way of good honest robots seeking jobs.
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lordraiden007 Mar 31, 2026 +12
On top of heavily penalizing all ghost jobs, we should have legislation changing the requirements for jobs reporting to include classifications of jobs based on compensation. I honestly don’t give a single f*** if 900 trillion jobs somehow get created if they’re all for shit pay. Our statistics should outline how much the jobs pay.
12
Daveit4later Mar 31, 2026 +11
Who would have thought putting a convicted felon, pedophile, and failed businessman in charge of the country could lead to economic problems? 
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Any-Progress- Apr 1, 2026 -1
Well after he failed his first term and tried to overthrow a presidential election he lost there were really no other options in the entire country. Joe Biden is old and Kamala would have got us into a war.
-1
Xivvx Mar 31, 2026 +6
Why would anyone hire when they don't know if they'll still be in business next week?
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Scottz0rz Mar 31, 2026 +13
Aren't these jobs numbers also from the department where Trump fired everyone and appointed sycophants to make the numbers look good? Or is this a different department? I forget.
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turb0_encapsulator Mar 31, 2026 +8
6.8 million of those are fake jobs.
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Sour_baboo Mar 31, 2026 +9
Where do I sign up for the job compiling a list of all the "Winning" we're doing?
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ChippedHamSammich Mar 31, 2026 +3
I am afraid to look at that looney conservative sub...are their lives perfect yet?
3
Cohens4thClient Apr 1, 2026 +4
Well, they think they did something to influence the Olympic committee to hate some trans people, so... hooray for bigotry? 
4
MichaelHunt009 Mar 31, 2026 +4
We need more H1B visas ASAP!
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RGQcats Apr 1, 2026 +5
We're absolutely in a recession.
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BillionDollarBalls Mar 31, 2026 +7
the job market has been ass for years
7
Politican91 Mar 31, 2026 +3
We need regulations to keep jobs here. Also maybe require interviews to be completed in 2 rounds instead of 5…
3
Cohens4thClient Apr 1, 2026 +3
Oracle just fired about a fifth of all their employees So yeah, doesnt look like this is turning around. 
3
deepsead1ver Apr 1, 2026 +1
Oh no, somebody start another war to distract from our failing economy! I hear Cuba is begging for a regime change
1
moxxibekk Apr 1, 2026 +1
Was midway through the interviewing process after looking for months (my previous, longterm company closed when the owner retired) only to be told this week that the position is on hold due to economic uncertainty 🫠
1
donac Apr 1, 2026 +1
A"hint"?? NO ONE CAN GET A JOB. WE ALL KNOW THERE ARE NO JOBS AVAILABLE. Just ask anyone trying to get a job.
1
Yewbert Mar 31, 2026 +1
/r/boycottUnitedStates /r/boycottamerica
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